Airdave's Kool Wheelz ASTRO VAN

[gregbal]

Looking for a 'sanity preserving' quick project in the midst of a more complicated build, I decided on Airdave's brilliant Kool Wheelz Collection "AstroVan." For those unfamiliar with this little gem, it's pretty much the stock NASA Apollo astronaut-transport RV design...as it might look if given a little extra 'juice,' by those nitro-methane huffing slide-rule geeks at 'JPL Racing,' to fit it for the quarter-mile.



I built mine per instructions except for a few minor detail additions. I cut cardboard discs to match the front and rear wheel sizes, then laminated more layers of cardboard together to what seemed appropriate thicknesses for the front racing tires and the fat rear 'slicks.' When dry and solid, I trimmed them up with a single-edge razor blade, then sanded them smooth. Since less than half of each wheel shows below the chassis, I could just cut each laminated blank in two, then glue to the rear of the wheel facing shown in the artwork for some nice 3-D tires.







To show off the cool racing-type scoop included, I nixed the little angled plinth part, and used some of my leftover laminated cardboard from the tires to make a proper blower housing. Since the 'butterfly' valves on the intake are nicely depicted, I figured I needed to add the actuator linkage and push-rod to the side of the scoop, as well.



Since with the obvious power of the 'bullet' supplied by JPL's engineers, and a proper Funny Car wheelbase, this beastie would be prone to some pretty dramatic wheel-stands...I used some extra cardboard scrap to make a set of wheelie-bars. And since Dave's model provided a nice set of drag chutes for the rear panel, I used some crumpled paper scrap to make the drogue leads for the chute-packs.





And here she is in all her glory, ready for the next launch from Cape Canaveral...or the final round at Pomona. Thank you, Dave, for this most excellent example of nitro-burning paper/space age technology!

[airdave]

[Vermin_King]

Pretty stinking cool work, sir

[gotham]

What a wonderful build.

[MacSongLi]

Totally AWESOME! Very nice job.


Gary

[gregbal]

Thanks, guys! I appreciate the support.


Greg

[grafixrj]

Sounds great...where's it at?

[Vermin_King]

Originally Posted by grafixrj

Sounds great...where's it at?

This is not a new post. When folks use an outside storage for their photos and 'link' to the image, when the image source goes away, so do the links.


They used to be here, and they were wonderful

[airdave]

Well, if everyone shares their own build of the AstroVan
we could fill this thread back up with pictures pronto!

Heres mine

[grafixrj]

Thanks Vermin King